Weekly Brief – 18th September 2026

ITS confirms 9 towns and cities are now ready for service

ITS broadband is now available in 9 towns and cities after the company announced plans to expand its full fibre service into 13 new locations. Businesses in Aberdeen, Bath, Bournemouth, Chester, Coventry, Huddersfield, Loughborough, Plymouth and Swansea are now able to order services, with further expansion in Cardiff, Edinburgh, Exeter and Southampton due to follow by the end of the year.

VodafoneThree announces the go-live of new Ericsson 5G core network

VodafoneThree has announced with Ericsson that the new cloud-native 5G Core has gone live. The new dual-mode 5G core, which unifies 4G and 5G functions onto a single platform, will provide the basis for a more resilient and efficient network. The network was originally contracted by Three in January 2025 and will support capacity of up to 9 Tbps.

Vorboss announces deal to provide connectivity to Here East campus

Business connectivity provider Vorboss has announced that it will build a PoP at the Here East campus in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park near Stratford, East London. The new PoP puts the Vorboss network on site with 400Gbps of connectivity. The site is the former press and broadcast centre, which was built for the London 2012 Olympic Games and has 1.2m square feet of space, and is home to global brands, including V&A East Storehouse, Sports Interactive, Ford Mobility, Hawk London and six universities. Enabling the site as a core network node for Vorboss is made easier by its proximity to key London datacenters only a few miles away, which provide a key connectivity point for UK ISPs.

O2 announced 5G standalone has been delivered to Newcastle, Tyneside and Sunderland

O2 has switched on its standalone 5G network (5G+) across areas of the North East including Newcastle, Tyneside and Sunderland. The company says that this will reach over 1.1m people across these areas with over 90% of outdoor 5GSA coverage. Full details of the areas where service is available can be found in the Virgin Media O2 press release.